Newsroom

Related Topics

An Army veteran accused of stirring up racial hatred in a speech outside Downing Street has said he wants all Jews to leave England.

Jeremy Bedford-Turner, 48, denied his address which called for his “soldiers” to rise up against “Jewish control” singled out a particular race, or that it stoked racism.

Under cross-examination at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, the alleged white supremacist revealed why he wanted the nation to return to a “merry England” in the last millennium mentioned in the speech.

Prosecutor Louis Mably QC asked: “What was merry about England between the reign of Edward the First and Oliver Cromwell?”

“There were no Jews,” replied Bedford-Turner, who served 12 years in the British Army.

“I would very much like them to leave England.”

Among the claims in the speech were that Jews were responsible for both World Wars, the Kray twins and Jack the Ripper.

Claiming the media was controlled by Jews who cover up bad publicity for the race, he cited in court the notorious 19th century serial killer as an example.

Mr Mably QC asked: “Are you saying you, Mr Bedford-Turner, cracked the greatest mystery in the annals of British crime and identified Jack the Ripper?”

Bedford-Turner, who was an Army linguist speaking Pashtu and Arabic, said there was DNA evidence that the killer was a Polish Jew.

Judge David Tomlinson took him to task on this, saying artist Walter Sickert had also been identified as the serial killer based on supposed genetic material by writer Patricia Cornwell, who was talking “absolute nonsense”.

Bedford-Turner said he was not aware of similar evidence against a fellow Englishman, conceding: “I’m not an encyclopaedia.”

The jury was shown a recording found on YouTube of the 15-minute speech, which took place in Whitehall during a rally against Jewish neighbourhood watch group Shomrim on July 4 2015.

Adrian Davies, for the defence, told jurors Bedford-Turner should be able to express his opinions even if they find them intolerable, and pointed out no police surrounding the rally chose to stop his speech.

“Can you suppose that large numbers of Metropolitan Police officers would just stand there and allow a man to whip up violence against the Jews, stood in Whitehall opposite 10 Downing Street?” he said.

The trial of Bedford-Turner, of no fixed abode, will continue on Monday.